I’m naked, standing under a waterfall. Lush tropical foliage surrounds the small lagoon. I raise my face to the sun, letting cool fresh water splash my cheeks. A trickle of cold water runs into my ear. I open my eyes, confused for a moment before I realize it’s just a dream and the water is coming from a hole in the grass roof. I’m in bed and I’m getting wet.
Rainwater cascades into the room; a natural water feature I hadn’t noticed when I’d rented the cabin a week earlier for $60/mth on a warm sunny day. Now, a stream races down the rotting floorboards, past my mattress on the floor, and surges underneath the protective plastic sheet. It trickles down the rope fastening my mosquito net to the roof beam. Mold attaches itself to my damp possessions. After the storm, in the pre-dawn silence, I can almost hear another microscopic mushroom sprouting from my Italian wool greatcoat. First thing in the morning, I puddle-skip across the yard to tell Efren Garcia, the owner, that I have a water emergency.
“There are cascades and rivers inside my cabin.”
“Okay,” he says, his wrinkled pirate-like face still sagged with sleep. “I’ll come and look. Ya mismo.”
At the sound of those two words, I am disheartened. “Ya mismo” means anytime in the near or distant future, or possibly never. There is nothing I can do.
“Okay,” I reply, resigned to wait, albeit just a tad impatiently
Alone, I return to my cabin to assess the damage. Everything is wet. My clothes. My laptop. My camera. The mattress. The floor. The whole place reeks of damp mustiness. This morning I’m supposed to go to Quito one last time to organize my life; pick up the rest of my belongings and hand over my Mariscal house keys, making the move to Mompiche permanent. Postponing the trip for one more day, I decide to stay around to make sure the roof is repaired. One more day doesn’t matter. This trip has already been postponed for two weeks after the horrific fiasco of being arrested and sent to prison.
Nearly an hour after I spoke to him, Efren comes by to inspect the cabin.
“Hmmm,” he says. Nodding thoughtfully. “We’ll have to replace the whole roof.”
That seems extreme, not to mention a little late. We’re in the heart of the wet season. Roof replacements should be done in the dry season.
“Why not try covering the roof with black plastic?” I ask, stating what I think is the most obvious immediate solution to keeping the rain out. Almost every other thatched roof in town has large sheets of plastic stretched over it.
“Well,” he explains, “the roof is very old. It should be replaced.”
One of Efren’s five sons, Morongo, built my hut over ten years ago when he was a teenager. It was famous as a place to create babies and was fondly nicknamed “The Loveshack” by everyone.
It’s a crooked structure now, with wonky walls and a lopsided floor. It’s just one room. The cold-water shower is across the yard, over the mud puddle. The nearest toilet is a bucket which is emptied over the lime and banana trees.
“But a new roof will take time. And my things are already wet.” I try to make Efren see sense. “If we put plastic on it now, we can keep the rain out straight away.”
“We’ll do a new roof fast,” he assures me.
By lunchtime, there is still no sign of activity on my roof. It’s pouring again. I try not to despair, mentally calculating the damage. At this rate, my clothes and the new mattress will be trash by the end of the week. I don’t even want to think about my camera and laptop. Not trusting when “ya mismo” will be, I pile it all in the driest spot in the middle of the room; on an ever decreasing island awash with refreshing indoor rain.
Then, putting the problem out of my head, I go swimming in the rain, letting the waves wash over my body, immersing myself up to my neck in the sea. It doesn’t help. I should be in Quito. I have things to do, people to see, problems to take care of, a chapter to close so the new one can open. I’m feeling stressed. By mid-afternoon, there is still no roof-action.
“Ya mismo,” Efren tells me when I ask what’s going on.
These are not encouraging words.
“But ya mismo can be a long time,” I tell him, smiling, making a joke, trying not to scream in frustration.
He laughs. “Ya mismo. I have to go to the hardware store first.”
Unable to hang out in my damp cabin, I try to find things to do, people to talk to. Pajaro the cow-horn jewelery-maker notices I’m tense, tells me to relax. I wish I could. I don’t tell anyone about my problem. That circle of good friends I can trust are still non-existent. I tell myself it’s out of my hands, that I have no control over it, that I just have to accept it. It’s tough. If they’re destroyed by water and mold, I can’t afford to replace my overly treasured material possessions.
The Love Shack, circa 1998. I lived here 1 Jan 2010 – 1 Oct 2011
Heading back to my cabin towards late afternoon, I find Efren putting a large sheet of black plastic on my balcony.
“Help me cut it,” he orders somewhat gently.
With pleasure! Finally, something useful is about to happen, but first we have to eat the mangoes he bought on his way back. Mangoes are available just three months of the year, only sold in season from January to March.
“Give me your knife,” he says.
I hand over the large kitchen knife and watch him peel a mango. When he’s done, he leaves the knife and the other mango on the table.
“That one is yours,” he tells me, mango juice dripping from his chin.
“Thanks,” I say, bemused at his gentlemanliness, and begin peeling the other mango.
He outlines his plan to cover the roof in black plastic to keep the rain out.
“The whole roof will be replaced in the dry season. It’s easier then,” he explains.
The man is a freaking genius! I wish I’d thought of it!
After we’ve washed sticky mango juice from our hands and faces, Efren runs the scissors down the crease as I stretch out the plastic tube. When it’s cut, we unfold the sheet and Efren measures the cabin with outstretched arms.
“Four meters.”
A rickety old ladder made from bamboo is leaned against the roof slats. Two rungs are missing. They’ve been replaced with synthetic rope. Efren climbs up the creaking ladder emitting a series of grunts and sighs. Without speaking, he descends, then vanishes.
I wait a moment, then realize he won’t be back for a while. Settling in the hammock, I hang out as Efren discusses the pros and cons of larger industrial cement mixers with the tenants across the yard. Nerih, one of Efren’s workers, comes over and assesses the situation. Nodding, he goes to the pile of gravel and picks out four small stones. Placing them on the balcony, he leaves without a word. Who knows what they are for, or when he’ll be back. An hour passes. I hang out in the hammock listening to waves crashing onto the beach. I hear a gecko making a territorial claim. A dog barks. A voice in another cabin. A baby cries. It soon settles back into silence. Only the music of the sea. And my amplified tinnitus.
“Now we’re ready,” Efren announces as he approaches, unraveling pieces of cord.
Nerih shows up and ties cords onto each corner of the plastic, using the small stones inside to secure them. Efren goes back up the protesting ladder. Nerih stays on the ground. He ties a longer rope at one end of the sheet. They stretch the sheet over the roof, tying it down on the corners.
“There! All done!” Efren announces as he comes down the ladder.
“What about the other half of the roof?” I ask.
“Sure! Nerih is going to buy more plastic, ya mismo.”
I’m not convinced. He leaves. Stretching out in the hammock again, I wait.
“Roni!” Efren calls urgently, approaching fast.
I sit up in the hammock. Maybe we’ll get it done after all. Now I’m more optimistic.
“Yo!” I call back. “What’s up? Do you need me to help you?”
“The hardware store is closed. We’ll have to do it tomorrow.”
No shit, Sherlock.
Except that I can’t put my trip off any more. In my heart, I know that I have to stay to make sure it’s done. I also know I have to get to Quito to sort things out.
“I’ll get plastic first thing in the morning and do it straight away,” he promises.
“Please,” I beg. “All my stuff is wet.”
During the night I don’t dream about lush forest and waterfalls. Between listening to the large drips on the floor and the rain splattering my face in the night, I get hardly any sleep at all.
At first light, I take off on a mission to Quito. I’m there and back in twenty-four hours, the least time possible via public transport and a little thumbing. When I get back, my cabin is filled with water from the violent storm the night before.
“You didn’t fix my roof?” I ask Efren, exhausted from yet another sleepless night after a nightmare trip on the bus from Quito. By now, I am on the verge of tears. I’m so upset my face is red hot.
“I couldn’t do it. It was raining hard all day and all night,” he says, laughing at his own joke.
I’m pissed. This is no longer acceptable. It was never acceptable to begin with. I head towards my cabin to check out the moldering ruins of my belongings, and to consider alternative accommodation.
“This is not okay with me,” I say quietly as I walk away.
“Okay. I’ll fix it today. Ya mismo,” he calls out after me, genuinely contrite.
By the end of the day, the whole roof is covered in the black plastic that will keep the rain off me and my belongings for the next year and three-quarters. Let the dry dreams begin!